1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a management assistance device and a management assistance method which are suitable for managing a status of responding to an incoming e-mail, that is, for example, who has sent a reply e-mail in response to an incoming e-mail. The present invention also relates to a program which causes a computer to execute a process for assisting the management of such a status of responding to an incoming e-mail.
2. Description of the Related Art
So far, Some people has proposed the technology for creating automatically or semi-automatically reply e-mails responding to incoming e-mails received from customers or the like. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2002-49564 discloses a mail creation device which parses an incoming e-mail to extract characteristic information from a result of the parsing, and which thereby selects a reply template corresponding to the extracted characteristic information. Thus, a draft of a reply mail is automatically created. A user edits, when needed, the draft of the reply mail created by the mail creation device, and thereafter sends the reply mail.
On the other hand, management of a status of responding to an incoming e-mail, which is, for example, who has sent a reply e-mail in response to an incoming e-mail, is expected to be performed by simple and reliable means. To take an instance, in a company, a plurality of persons in charge receive the same incoming inquiry e-mail from a customer or the like, and where one of the plurality of persons in charge is expected to respond to the incoming inquiry e-mail. In this case, unless each person in charge can find out who has sent a reply e-mail, a reply mail may not be sent, or the plurality of persons in charge redundantly send reply e-mails.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication Nos. 2003-256335 and 2003-296251 disclose systems which assist management of a status of responding to incoming e-mails. Here, the management is performed in a group to which a plurality of persons in charge belong. The systems disclosed in JP-A Nos. 2003-256335 and 2003-296251 comprise terminals used by the respective persons in charge, and a management server for centrally managing a status of responding to incoming e-mails. To be more precise, the management server receives incoming e-mails via a mail server connected to the Internet, and then generates response management information on deadlines for replies to the received incoming e-mails and on person in charge of the replies, and the like. Thereby, the management server stores the response management information in a database, and manages this information. Each person in charge accesses the management server with his or her own terminal, browses incoming mails, and retrieves and browses the response management information stored in the database. Accordingly, the persons in charge can find out the status of responding to incoming mails.
In addition to the terminals used by the respective persons in charge, the systems disclosed in JP-A Nos. 2003-256335 and 2003-296251 need a management server which receives incoming e-mails via a mail server connected to the Internet, and which centrally manages a status of responding to incoming e-mails. For this reason, there is a problem that a status of responding to incoming e-mails cannot be easily managed with terminals or the like respectively used by a plurality of persons in charge.